Worship as an element of sanctuary service

WORSHIP

(jflement of SanctiiarD Strljice.

REV. HENRY DARLING. D.D.

REPRINTED FROM THi:

PRESBYTERIAN QUARTERLY REVIEW.

PHILADELPHIA:
WILLIAM S. YOUNG, PRINTER, NO. 32 NORTH SIXTH STREET,

1862.

F-39

FROM THE LIBRARY OF
REV. LOUIS FITZGERALD BENSON. D. D.

BEQUEATHED BY HIM TO

THE LIBRARY OF

PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

SCO

if VMr--

WORSHIP

AS AN

(Element 0f ^aitctuarg Ser&ice

REV. HENRY DARLING, D. D.

KEPRINTED FROM THE

PRESBYTERIAN QUARTERLY REVIEW,

WILLIAM S. YOUNG, PRINTER, NO. 52 NORTH SIXTH STREET,
PHILADELPHIA:

1862.

I

PREFACE

This Article, from the April Number of the Presbyterian Quarterly
Review, is issued in a separate form by the Author, sunplij because of the
importance of the subject it discusses, and in the hope that its usefulness
would be increased by a wider circulation.

It is time that those churches which retain in their Sanctuary service
the simplicity of Apostolic times and discard all medieval ritualism, should
satisfy those yearnings for " Worship ^'^ which some devout minds in their
communion feel, and which lead them to look — occasionally to go — else-
where. That to do this we only need a complete and full development of
our oicn Si/stem, this Article is an humhle attempt to show. That it is far
from an exhaustive treatment of the subject, no one can feel more keenly
than the Author. So far however as it goes, he believes it to be in the
right direction.

i

WORSHIP

The services of God's house, as usually conJacted, may be
regarded as comprising two great elements. Worship and In-
struciion; and although these elements are mutually helpful,
and, to some extent, interpenetrate each other, yet they may,
in our examination, he separately and distinctly considered.
Worship is the act of paying divine honor to the Supreme Be-
ing, and includes those parts of divine service whereof Jehovah
himself is the immediate object. Instruction is the communi-
cation of knowledge from one mind to another, and includes
"whatever in the service is the acting of men, upon the autho-
rity and commission of God, on others. The first comprises
the prayers and praises of the sanctuary; the latter is limited
to the reading and preaching of the word.

But, divine service composed of these two elements, it is
plain that there is a certain relation that they ought always to
sustain to each other, and that great care should be observed
not to give to either an undue and disproportional prominence.
In retiring from the house of God a congregation should feel
that they have ivorsliipped — that they have given to Jehovah
that reverence and honor which are his due; and, at the same
time, that they have obtained some new or clearer view of truth.
But how seldom are both of these ends of divine service at-
tained?

lu the Romish Church the element of worship has almost

entirely supplanted that of instruction. The mass — and to this,
in countries purely papal, divine service is almost wholly
limited — is nothing but a symbolical representation of the sa-
crifice of Christ, and a great thank-ofi'ering. Indeed, as the
ministry, according to the theory of Romanism, is a priesthood,
and the pulpit an altar, there is in the whole system no place
for instruction. It is not the business of a papal ecclesiastic
to preach. He is not a teacher, to instruct men in the way of
righteousness, but a priest, to appear before God in their be-
half. And in strict agreement with this theory of popery has
ordinarily been her practice. An old English Reformer, speak-
ing of this Church in his day, quaintly remarked, " that if
there were one vast gulf from Calais to Dover, it would not be
large enough to contain its unpreaching bishops."

But, while the Romish Church has, in the order of her service,
gone to this dangerous extreme of excluding all instruction, has
the Protestant Church been always sufficiently careful to retain
in her sanctuary service the element of worship? Has she never
given an undue prominence to preaching? Luther once said
that "the greatest and most important part of the service of
God's house was the preaching and teaching of the word ;" and
doubtless the truth of the remark all Protestant Christians
would admit. The minister of Christ, under the new dispensa-
tion, is not a priest, but a teacher, and by making, in this di-
rection, full proof of his ministry, ought to give cause to the
rejoicing multitude to exclaim, " How beautiful upon the moun-
tains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that pub-
lisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that pub-
lisheth salvation." But is this "most important part" of
divine service its all? Was Luther right when, to the remark
just quoted, he added "that wherever the word of God is not
preached, it is better neither to sing, nor to read, nor to assem-
ble together." Of very much church-going, in our day, the
only motive is sermon-hearing. This is the kernel of the service,
and around it all the prayers and praises of the sanctuary hang
as mere preparation and conclusion. Men think very little of
worship as they enter a sanctuary of a Protestant and unlitur-
gical Church. They go to it as they would to a scientific or

literary lecture-room, making between the two no essential dis-
tinction but such as exists in the topics that are in both illus-
trated and enforced. Is this an exaggerated statement? Ob-
serve the passivity of a congregation during the services pre-
liminary to the delivery of the discourse — the readiness with
which they consent to pass them over into other hands — the
strange irreverence which men often manifest in the Lord's
house — and the fact that the profit of any service is almost all
made to depend upon the excellence or defect of the sermons.
And the existence of this same idea, is it not often apparent
in the mind of the minister himself? Does he not frequently
so conduct the services of God's house as to make it simply a
school for religious instruction? A discourse elaborately pre-
pared and effectively delivered, is it not oftentimes both pre-
ceded and followed by the most unstudied and inappropriate
utterances of prayer? Of how many divines, eloquent when,
for God, they speak to men, could it be said, as was said of the
late Dr. Griffin, that his most eloquent utterances were always
when for men he spoke to God?

No one familiar with the additions that have recently been
made to our hymnology can have failed to notice how subject-
ive in their character they generally are. They are descriptive
of some peculiar phase of the believer's inner life. To those
old psalms and hymns of lofty praise, that bore the spirit away
from itself, and brought it to lie down, in the deepest reve-
rence, before Jehovah's throne, few additions have, in these
modern times, been made. Indeed, the element of instruction
in divine service, has so absorbed that of worship as to make
ministers feel that everything in the shape of song must be
made to bear directly upon the topic of discourse. We have
few doxologies in the modern Church. "We sing doctrine, and
Christian experience, and stirring exhortations to duty, more
than we sing praise.

It is, then, no unimportant subject, no subject devoid of prac-
tical interest, that we propose to discuss in this Article. Our
theme is worship — its importance as an element of sanctuary
service.

In its illustration, our first argument will be drawn from the

6

natural influence of worship, as we have already briefly defined
it. Worship exercises the aff'ections. In those parts of divine
service embraced under this division the heart takes the lead.
While instruction has immediate respect to the understanding
and conscience, worship has regard to the emotions and aflfec-
tions of the soul. God's character and law, his efficacious grace
and everlasting faithfulness, are here made matters, not of spe-
culative inquiry, but of taste and experience. "Worship is
not study; it is not mind grappling with the severities of know-
ledge, but it is the heart breathing its wants into the ear of
God in praise or prayer, or in meditating in delightful com-
placency upon his character and love." And how happy the
eff'ect of this upon the soul must be, is sufficiently evident from
the single fact that it is the aff'ections, more than either the
reason or conscience, that constitutes the life-blood of vital
religion. The deep home of sin is in the heart. If this is
right, the conscience would seldom be wrong, and reason would
never be driven from her throne. "None deny," says Lord
Bacon, " there is a God, but those for whom it maketh that
there was no God." And all the other forms of religious skep-
ticism have the same origin. The causes of infidelity are eth i
cal, rather than intellectual.

Moreover, though the truth is the instrument of sanctifica-
tion, it does not hence follow that the intellect alone has busi-
ness with it, or alone can rightly understand it. The heart has
much to do with the truth. It needs its impulse quite as much
as the mind needs its light. When the soul comes to employ
it, in intercourse with God, divine truth has a very diff'erent
aspect from that which it has when simply examined in itself.
Those great and deep doctrines of revelation which men grap-
ple with in vain, when, with an undevout intellect, they sit in
judgment upon them, lose much of their power to perplex and
harass when received with that lowliness of spirit which true
worship begets. Few men misunderstand God on their knees.
W^hat a felicitous illustration of this thought is the seventy-
third Psalm ! The divine ways, intellectually considered, brought
the Psalmist into perplexity. He could not understand them.
The impenetrable shade of a dark cloud hung over them, and

all his sagacity in study could not bring peace to his mind.
Hear his language: "But as for me, my feet were almost
gone ; my steps had well nigh slipped. For I was envious at
the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked." So soon,
however, as this mere speculation ceased, and, in the spirit of
a sincere worshipper, Asaph went into the sanctuary of God,
and there meditated upon His ways, the cloud was lifted, the
enigma solved, and the Psalm closes with the satisfied excla-
mation, " It is good for me to draw near to God. I have put
my trust in the Lord God."

The late Dr. Ebenezer Porter, in his Lectures on Homile-
tics, remarks that " the usefulness of a minister depends, in no
small measure, on the character of his public prayers," and
enforces this remark by the following suggestive thoughts upon
the influence of this part of sanctuary service: "When the de-
votions of the sanctuary have their proper effect, they prepare
the hearers to listen, with deep and solemn interest, to the in-
structions delivered from the pulpit. Just so far as the prayer
in which they have joined has brought them io feel the impres-
sions of a present God in the sanctuary, and the eternal retri-
butions to which they are going, their minds are divested of
listlessness, and prejudice, and fastidious criticism, and they
will hear a sermon with candor and humility. Besides, what
is it that gives a sermon jpower over the hearts of hearers? It
is a solemn persuasion that the preacher himself is deeply im-
pressed with the everlasting importance of the truths which he
delivers. But how shall they be thus persuaded, unless the
thing is a reality? And how shall the minister deeply /ge^ the
weight of truth in his sermon, if his heart has been cold in the
devotional exercises which have gone before it? The heart
which slumbers in speaking to God, and wakes up in speaking
to men, has but a false and factitious warmth, which, in its
influence on other hearts, is totally different from the genuine
glow of religious feeling. There may be reasons why a man
should be fervent in his devotions, and yet fail of delivering an
interesting sermon. But the converse is a much more rare oc-
currence, namely, that the hearers are disappointed by an im-
pressive and powerful sermon from the same lips that had just

8

uttered a dull and formal prayer. If you would be a success-
ful preacher, you must not fail essentially in public prayer."*

But, passing the argument drawn from the natural influence
of worship to show its importance as an element of sanctuary ser-
vice, the reader will notice, as illustrating still farther our sub-
ject, the great prominence that was given to worship, both in the
Jewish and ancient Christian Church. The Roman Catholic hie-
rarchy, modelling itself confessedly from the old temple of wor-
ship of the Jews, is perfectly consistent in excluding from its ser-
vice the element of instruction. When the Israelites went up to
their temple at Jerusalem, either at the hour of daily prayer
or upon one of the great feasts of their nation, it was not to
listen to any formal exhibition of divine truth. There were,
indeed, in Judea, prophets; and schools of the prophets were
established at Bethel, Naioth, and Jericho; and these prophets
were a class of teachers. Their addresses, however, were de-
livered only on extraordinary occasions, and when some divine
afliatus prompted them to utter either an intimation of mercy
or a threatening of wrath. In the ordinary religious services
of the Jews there was nothing that would at all correspond to
what, in this day, we call the preaching of the word. Every-
thing was worship. All the rights and ceremonial observances
of both the tabernacle and the temple, while they symbolically
represented truth, dimly shadowed forth the divine greatness,
glory, justice, grace, and thus indirectly taught them, were
especially calculated and designed to impress sentiments of the
profoundest reverence and awe of Jehovah upon every mind.
The Israelites went up to Jerusalem to worship. Their song,
as they entered the temple, was, *' 0 come let us worship and
bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our maker." Indeed,
so prominent was this element of worship in all the public reli-
gious services of the Jews, that it was not until after their
return from captivity in Babylon, and the establishment of
synagogues, that even the reading of the Old Testament Scrip-
tures became with them a regular part of any service.

How prominent, also, as an element of sanctuary service,
was worship in the early Christian Church! Modelled after

* Porter's Lectures on Homiletics, p. 293.

9

the Jewish synagogue, both as to its officers and the order of
its services, primitive Christians did not, indeed, exclude in-
struction from their holj assemblies. Portions of the Old Tes-
tament, of the Gospel, and of the apostolic epistles were read
at all their public religious meetings. But this, with them,
formed almost all the instruction of the sanctuary. Mosheim
asserts that it was sometimes literally all^ and that frequently
no sermon followed this reading of the Scriptures.^ Neander,
however, is, we suppose, more true to history, when he says
that "this reading was followed by a short and very simple ad-
dress, in familiar language, such as the heart prompted at the
moment, and which contained an exposition or application of
what had been read."t It is in the writings of Justin Martyr,
that we find the first mention of a Christian sermon, and very
little is there, in his language, to identify it with a modern
pulpit discourse: "After the reading is ended, the minister of
the assembly makes an address, in which he admonishes and
exhorts the people to imitate the virtues which it enjoins."*
"It was," says the same distinguished historian already quoted,
(Neander,) "among the Greeks, who were more given to the
culture of rhetoric, that the sermons first began to take a wider
range, and to assume an important place in the acts of wor-
ship."

But to illustrate the prominence that worship, as an element
of sanctuary service, had in the early Church, there is per-
haps nothing so impressive as the simple presentation of its'
order of service, or, in other words, a glance at its "Directory
for AYorship." And remembering that the celebration of the
Lord's Supper formed a part of every public religious service
among the primitive disciples of Christ, we may take the fol-
lowing as a truthful statement of their mode of conducting di-
vine worship. "We quote again from Justin Martyr: "On the
day which is called Sunday, there is an assembly in one place
of all who dwell either in towns or in the country, and the me-

* Ancient Christianity Exemplified, p. 348.
t Xeander's Church History, Vol. I., p. 303.

10

moirs of the apostles, or the writings of the prophets, are read,
as long as time permits. Then, when the reader has ceased,
the President delivers a discourse, in which he reminds and ex-
horts them to the imitation of all these good things. We then
all stand up and offer our prayers. Then, as we have already
said, when we cease from prayer, bread is brought, and wine
and water; and the President, in like manner, offers up prayers
and praises, according to his ability, and the people express
their assent by saying, Amen. The consecrated elements are
then distributed and received by every one, and a portion is
sent by the deacons to those who are absent."*

But, again, as an element of sanctuary service, the impor-
tance of worship is clearly indicated by the special and ample
provision for its maintenance that God has made in his word.
While the Bible is doubtless intended principally to be a reve-
lation of the divine will to man, and contains a didactic state-
ment of those doctrines and facts, important for men to
know, but which natural religion is unable to disclose, it
is still interesting to observe how large a portion of it is
adapted for purposes of devotion, and seems for this end main-
ly to have been written. Instead of being altogether an ab-
stract and objective treatise on religion, God's word is full of
the effusions of subjective piety. With the great doctrines it
teaches, are devout prayers, hymns of praise, and narratives of
religious experience. Indeed, whole chapters, and even books
'of this character, may be found in the sacred volume. These
contain very little direct instruction. What they teach is in-
cidental and secondary. Their grand purpose is to meet the
wants, in all ages, of Christian devotion. They are the in-
spired breathings of pious hearts, and are preserved in the sa-
cred canon as the food for the devotion of God's people in all
ages of the Church.

The book of Psalms is a most striking illustration of this re-
mark. It is, what its title indicates, the praises of the Lord.
It is an epitome of the whole Bible, adapted to purposes of de-

* Justin Mar. Apol., p. 8'

11

votion. For doctrinal instruction, men do not ordinarily resort
to it. When the Council of Toulouse, (A. D. 1229,) prohibited
the Bible to laymen, they excepted the Book of Psalms. It
was not sufficiently didactic to awaken the fears of the Papacy;
yet, in its language, have the prayers and praises of the Church
been for ages ascending to God. "That which we read," says
Bishop Home, "as a matter of speculation, in the other Scrip-
tures, is reduced to practice when we recite it in the Psalms:
in those repentance and faith are described, but in these they
are acted; by a perusal of the former, we learn how others
served God; but by using the latter we serve him ourselves.
The book is like the paradise of Eden. It affords us, in per-
fection, though in minature, everything that groweth elsewhere,
"every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food,"
and, above all, what was there lost, is here restored — the tree
of life in the midst of the garden.* And of the same import are
these words of Calvin, in the preface of his Exposition of the
Psalms: "Other portions of the Scriptures contain command-
ments, whose transmission the Lord enjoined upon his servants ;
but in the Psalms the prophets, communing with God, and un-
covering their inmost feelings, call and urge every reader to
thanksgiving and praise.

The Sacred Scriptures, then, we assert, comprise precisely
the same great elements that we have seen belonging to the ser-
vices of God's house. One portion was designed for instruction,
another for worship. We go to the Epistles for doctrine, and
to the Psalms for devotion; and just as both are important
parts of God's word, and as that word could not be complete
should either be wanting, so, in the services of the sanctuary,
men should worship God — they should bow down and kneel be-
fore the Lord their Maker, as well as listen to the teachings of
his word.

But once more, to illustrate the importance of worship as an
element of sanctuary service, observe the evils that result from
its neglect, or from failing to give to it its true place. The

* Home's Commentary on the Psalms, Vol. I., p. 2.

12

most casual observer cannot fail to notice, in the external de-
meanor of a Catholic and a Protestant congregation, a contrast
that is not always creditable to the latter. Charge what er-
rors in doctrine and practice he may upon the Papal Church —
and these, we acknowledge, are both numerous and weighty —
it must still be conceded that it is, seemingly at least, more
obedient to that command, "Keep thy foot when thou goest to
the house of God," than many other Churches that hold a more
scriptural faith. And while, for this, one reason is, unques-
tionably, a mistaken notion of the peculiar sanctity of the
place in which divine service is held — arising from the idea that
the true shekinah is in an earthly temple, and not in the indi-
vidual heart, another is the great prominence which it gives
to the element of worship in all its religious exercises. Let a
Protestant congregation, as it enters the sanctuary, feel that
something more than mere sermon-hearing has convened them ;
let them realize that, as a company of dependent and guilty
creatures, they have came together to worship that Divine
Being who, is the author of all their blessings, and who is alone
able to remit to them the guilt of their sins; and who can
doubt but a change, most happy, would be wrought upon their
whole external deportment? To regard the sanctuary simply
as a place of instruction, is at once to place it on a level with
the scientific or literary lecture-room — save that in the former
the theme of the speaker's discourse is more important than in
the latter. No wonder that, with such views of God's bouse,
men are oftentimes indifferent as to whether they are present
at the commencement of its services or not; are so listless
during part of its exercises as to need something to recall
their fugitive minds to them, — as did the bells tied to the high-
priest's garments between the pomegranates among the Jews,
and which rang upon the least movement of his person ; and so
frequently employ the last moments of the service in prepara-
tion for a speedy departure. Men must feel that "the Lord is
in his holy temple," and that they have come up thither to meet
and to worship Him, before they will keep silence in His pre-
sence. As it was the vision of God, in the fire that enveloped

13

the bush on Horeb, and the voice of Jehovah that proceeded
from it, that led Moses to put off the shoes from his feet, and
to stand in holj awe before it, — so it is the voice and vision of
the same Jehovah, in his house, that will alone produce in man
that reverence which becomes the sanctuary.

And to the same cause do we attribute much of that critical
spirit which men so often bring with them into God's house.
With the idea of worship uppermost, or even prominent, in the
mind of a congregation, what though the speaker drop an unhand-
some word, though his style have not all the mellifluent flow of
the schools, and his discourse will not bear the test of a rigid
criticism? God is still in his house. Indeed, the thought of
coming up into the sanctuary to meet God, to adore him for all
his matchless perfections, and to receive his benediction, how
does it not only disarm criticism, but lead us even to forget
that there is any thing human in the services to criticise I To
come up into God's house, simply to hear a sermon or two, ends
frequently only in the censure or laudation of the preacher;
but to go up into that same sanctuary to worship God, has, as
its natural result, enlarged conceptions of the greatness of the
preacher's God.

Irregularity likewise of attendance upon God's house, and
that attendance graduated by the character of the expected
discourse, is among the evils that forgetfulness of worship, as
an element of sanctuary service, has a tendency to produce.
Some of our oldest and wisest divines have remarked, that
there seems to be of late, even among the professed followers
of Christ, a far lower sense of obligation, with reference to the
attendance upon God's house, than formerly. Many Chris-
tians now permit very trivial causes to keep them from filling
their place in the sanctuary. They regard church-going rather
as a privilege than a duty, and are quite satisfied if they avail
themselves of it occasionally, or, at the most, upon a part only
of the Sabbath. And is not this the necessary result of that
theory or practice of sanctuary service which wholly ignores
the element of worship? If the church is man's church, and
the leading conception in the mind is the listening to a

14

set discourse, is it strange that men deem it a matter of
little moment whether they attend regularly upon its ser-
vices? Ay, more; if spiritual instruction constitute the very
essence of a sanctuary service — if we are to go to God's
house alone to be taught divine truth — why should not a man
stay away from it, when at home, by his own meditations or
reading, he honestly believes that that spiritual enlightenment
would best be promoted? That God should be adored, and that
this adoration should have some outward expression, all men
instinctively feel. Satisfy them, then, that this is the great
aim of sanctuary service, and they will not so often, and for
causes so trivial, desert it. And are not Protestant and un-
liturgical churches just here in great danger of losing their hold
upon the unsanctified masses? With the Church nothing but
a school, can all the teachers be so eloL^uent, or any one always
so eloquent, as to receive, on the part of voluntary pupils, con-
stant and unvaried attendance? Apart from the direct out-
pouring of the Divine Spirit, we do not believe that any thing
would be more effectual in enlarging Sabbath congregations,
and making them more uniform in numbers, than an increased
attention to worship as an element of sanctuary service.

It only remains on this part of our subject, that we should
invite the careful attention of our readers to the excellent stan-
dards of our Church; for all that we have said upon the im-
portance of worship, as an element of sanctuary service, is in
them strikingly confirmed and enforced. The holy men of God
who framed "the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church,"
believed in the true theory of worship. They never regarded
the house of God as a mere place for instruction. On the con-
trary, fearing that this might be the tendency of a rigid sim-
plicity and careful avoidance of all forms, they solemnly warned
us against this error. In the sixth chapter of our Directory
for Worship — a chapter entitled, " Of the Preaching of the
Word" — and in the fifth section, we read: "As one primary
design of public ordinances is to pay social acts of homage to
the Most High God, ministers ought to be careful not to make
their sermons so long as to interfere with or exclude the more
impoj'tant duties of prayer and praise^ but preserve a just pro-

15

portion between the several parts of public worship." Again,
in the chapter entitled "Of the Singing of Psalms," (chap.iv.,)
we have the following pertinent suggestion (section iv. :) "The
proportion of the time of public worship to be spent in singing
is left to the prudence of every minister ; but it is recommended
that more time be allowed for this excellent part of divine ser-
vice, than has been usual in most of our churches." And si-
milar statements may be found in the chapter on Public Prayer
(chap. V.:) "It is the indispensable duty," we read, "of every
minister, previously to his entering on his office, to prepare and
qualify himself for this part of his duty, as well as for preach-
ing. He ought, by a thorough acquaintance with the Holy
Scriptures, by reading the best writers on the subject, by medi-
tation, and by a life of communion with God in secret, to en-
deavor to acquire both the spirit and the gift of prayer. Not
only so, but when he is to enter on particular acts of worship,
he should endeavor to compose his spirit, and to digest his
thoughts for prayer, that it may be performed with dignity and
propriety, as well as to the profit of those who join in it, and
that he may not disgrace that important service, by mean, vul-
gar, or extravagant effusions."

But from this view of the importance of worship, as an ele-
ment of sanctuary service, it is time that we should pass to the
inquiry. How may our ideal be realized? How — supposing
worship with us to have somewhat fallen out of its true place in
the order of God's house — may it therein be reinstated? And
that wc may not be misunderstood in any thing that we have
already said, let it here be distinctly remarked, that this end
is not to be obtained by any decrease in our sanctuary service
of the element of instruction, nor yet by the subordination of
preaching to worship. This, as we have already seen, is a cor-
ollary from the erroneous doctrine of the priestly character
of the Christian ministry. Indeed, instead of lowering the
standard of preaching, even intellectually considered, every-
thing should be done to elevate it. Men called to be the he-
ralds of salvation, should pour into their discourses the richest
treasures of their learning, and seek, as vigorous intellectual
exercises, to command attention for their sermons. In this

16

age, when even the common mind gains a power of sustained
thought, on religious subjects, which it has not on any other,
and is thus possessed "with an intelligence that outruns its
culture," it will not do for the minister of Christ, in his pulpit
labors, to satisfy himself with unpremeditated utterances. The
people demand strong thought. They crave argument. Their
earnest souls will not be content with mere rhetorical tinsel.
They will listen and for awhile be pleased with the gay fancies
that play over the surface of a discourse; but unless, beneath
all this, there is the substratum of real and vigorous thought,
their pleasure will be as ephemeral as their profit.

Nor would it be difficult here to show that wherever real re-
ligion has decayed, it has uniformly been marked by a corre-
sponding declension, both in the character and amount of
preaching. The priestly theory of ministerial character, even
in its most attenuated form — that form which has been admit-
ted into the constitution of some Protestant churches — as it
elevates the altar above the pulpit, has always been connected
with a weak and emasculated Christianity. It is not, then, to
any rivalry with instruction that we would bring worship. We
have no aim to weaken in any mind the importance of preach-
ing, in our efforts to magnify, in the esteem of the_ Church,
other portions of her service.

But, again, to give worship its true place in the services of
God's house, let no one suppose that the adoption of a liturgy,
or the assumption of an ecclesiastical dress, is either necessary or
expedient. That there is, at this day, a tendency in the Church
generally toward a liturgical service, will, we suppose, be univer-
sally conceded. We see it in the revision by some Churches of
their old and long disused formularies of worship, in the re-
print of the difi'erent liturgies of the Reformers, and, perhaps,
we may add, in the increased popularity of the ritual sects.
And the main cause of this is to be found in the same feeling
that prompts the writing of this Article. As men enter the
sanctuary, and go with an unliturgical denomination through
its services, they oftentimes feel that something is wanting —
that the necessities of the soul have not been fully met; that
they have not worshipped God ; and attributing this to the

17

simplicity of the service, and to the entire absence of all forms,
they at once conclude that what the service wants for its com-
pletion is nothing more than the presence of a prescribed and
imposing ceremonial. But it is not so with us. Sharing some-
what in this feeling of the want of worship in our sanctuary
service, we have no idea that the want is to be satisfied in the
manner proposed. We think we see a more excellent way than
this.

In favor of the use of liturgies, it may, indeed, be truthfully
said, that all the Reformed Churches in the sixteenth century
employed them, to some extent. Formularies of worship were
composed by Melanchthon, Calvin, Bucer, and Knox, and were,
in their respective churches, continued for many years in con-
stant observance. But their use was optional, and that only
in parts of the service, combined with extempore prayer in
other parts. For the precedents which are to control our con-
duct in this matter, we choose to go still further back in the
history of the Church. "We look to apostolic usage, and surely
there is nothing in it that would incline us for one moment to
the use of liturgical forms. Indeed, there is something that
csavors not a little of the ridiculous in the very thought of Paul
carrying with him, in his itinerancy, ''prayer-book and gown,"
and essaying to preach only when provided with these helps and
adornments of worship. ''Sine monitore, quia de 'pectore ora-
mus,'' are the well-known words of Tertullian, and doubtless
express the universal usage of the primitive Church. It was
not until the fifth century that forms of prayer were prescribed
by public authority.*

^ "When the Arian and Pelagian doctrines began seriously to disturb
the Church, various forms of expression, occasioned by public controversy,
gradually insinuated themselves into the language of prayer; and it was
deemed necessary by the Council of Laodicea to require, by ecclesiastical
regulations, that ministers, instead of using the liberty before enjoyed,
should always keep to one form of prayer; that is, should not pray 'pro
arbitrio, sed semper easdem preces.'" This form, however, each minister
might compose for himself, provided that * before using it, he should con-
sult with learned and experienced brethren.' This regulation was ex-
plained as already in existence, by the Council of Carthage, A. 0.397-
About twenty years after this, in 416, the Council of Milan ordained that
none should use set forms of prayer, except such as were approved in a
Synod. — Porter's Lectures, p. 285.

18

Moreover, although it has been said "that the adoption of a
liturgy is peculiarly consonant with the spirit and usage of the
Presbyterian Church, inasmuch as it is characterized by strict
and scrupulous adherence to established formulas of doctrine
and discipline," we venture to affirm that the very opposite
is true. Its *' spirit" is that of the largest liberty consistent
with order and truth. It seeks to bind the faith of men only
to the great essentials of doctrine. It builds up no high fence
of exclusion around either the pulpit or the communion-table.
Men, '' holding the Head," are freely welcome to both. It is
emphatically a missionary Church, and cannot, therefore, so
cumber itself with burdensome rites, as to be unadapted to the
necessities of a simple people and a widely scattered population.
It is not a Church for great cities only, where all the factitious
adornments of worship may be easily had, but it is a Church for
all men, wherever God in his providence may cast their lot.
It is a Church, indissolubly connected, in all its history with
revivals of religion; and this its distinctive spirit would go
out of it, the very moment that we attempted to tie it down to
the rigidity of a pre-composed service. Nor is it true that the
adoption of a liturgy is consonant with the "usage" of the
Presbyterian Church. It was when John Knox's "Book of
Common Order" was generally used in the Scottish Kirk, that
the Westminster Assembly prepared our excellent "Directory
for Worship," and in that we have the following direct testimony
against the adoption of a liturgical service: "We do not ap-
prove, as is well known, of confining ministers to set or fixed
forms of prayer" (chap, v., sect, iv.) Shortly after this, writ-
ten forms of prayer were laid aside in the Presbyterian Church
of Scotland, and have never since been adopted.

In our earnest desire, then, to give to worship a larger place in
our sanctuary service than it now holds, let it distinctly
be understood that we have no sympathy with that class of
minds among us, who are continually hankering after a ritual,
and who make themselves the small imitators of other denomi-
nations than their own. No; away with prayer-book and
gown, rubrics and bands! Associations of the mystical Baby-
lon still cluster around them. Give us a free voice and a free

19

arm, as we attempt to direct the worship of the sanctuary. Let
the full soul pour out itself in gracious expressions of its holy
thoughts into the bosom of the Almighty; and if there should
be some stops or solecisms in the fervent utterance of our wants,
these are so far from being offensive, that they are the most
pleasing music to the ears of that God unto whom our prayers
'come. To this imperfect elocution, our Heavenly Father is no
otherwise affected, than an indulgent earthly parent is to the
clipped and broken language of his dear child.

But if our ideal of the importance of worship, as an element
of sanctuary service, is to be realized, neither by the subordi-
nation to it of preaching, nor yet by the adoption of a liturgy —
what, the inquiry returns to us, can we do toward the accom-
plishment of this end? In reply, we will direct our remarks
to those parts of the services of God's house that may, with
some propriety, be arranged under the head of worship — viz.,
its praises and prayers.'

And first, with reference to the praises of God's house: We
have already remarked upon the character of almost all the
additions which have recently been made to the hymnology of
the Church. Many of them are experimental. They faithful-
ly and sometimes touchingly describe some inward struggle of
the soul. Others are supplicatory. They are prayers, in verse.
A few are hortatory. They are stirring appeals to repentance
or to Christian activity. And, still again, some are doctrinal.
Their aim is to teach or impress upon the mind some great
truth of religion. But where in this catalogue, are the distinc-
tively objective hymns — the hymns in which both writer and
reader come entirely out of themselves, magnify God, and have
their whole souls ravished by the conception of His matchless
perfections ? That these experimental and supplicatory hymns
are greatly needed in the Church — indeed, that we cannot per-
mit them to die, we readily concede. But their proper place
is it not the closet, rather than the sanctuary; and the social
meeting of believers, rather than the great congregation of the
people? Should we take the Book of Psalms as our model, as
we certainly ought to do, we would not, indeed, exclude all ex-
perimental hymns from our sanctuary services, for many of the

20

Psalms are the narratives of the writers' experience; but cer-
tainly this class would be far fewer in number than those which
summon us to lofty praise. "With David as our example, we
would sing not so much of ourselves as of God.

But the character of the recent additions to our hymnology,
fairly indicates the character of our Church praise. Indeed,
it is the demand which ministers have made for this class of
hymns that has occasioned their large supply. Our books fast
filling up with them, they are fast becoming the staple of our
songs. It is now a rare thing, in some of our congregations,
to be invited to unite in a single Psalm or hymn that is dis-
tinctively one of praise. If the preacher design to discourse
to us upon some point of doctrinal theology, or to present us
with some peculiar phase of religious experience, or to exhort
the impenitent at once to come to Christ as their Saviour, he
seeks in all his psalmody to enforce his teachings. And the
necessary result of this, must it not be to make the Church a
school, and to eliminate, from all its service, the element of
worship ? And with this character of the hymns of the Church,
will its music, of course, correspond; and hence, in the place
of those old choral tunes which, swelling up to heaven with
the sweet accord of many voices, went down into the very depths
of the soul, awakening its deepest and strongest emotions — we
have sometimes dry and business-like airs, suited for didactic
verse, and anon sentimental songs, artistically executed, by a
select few.

Moreover, to the element of worship, in that part of the ser-
vices of God's house which we are now considering, nothing is
more fatal than that entire passivity which ordinarily obtains
in our congregations. Where the singing is done by proxy,
there can be, on the part of the people, no suitable worship.
All choirs that are not the simple leaders of the congregation
in sacred song, are ruinous to devotion. The idea that any
Church worships God in its music, when this is performed
wholly by a company of hired singers, is perfectly preposterous.
If any of our readers regard this language as extravagant, let
them observe for a moment the contrast, when after the closing
hymn of a religious service, artistically sung in some unknown

21

strains by a select choir, the whole congregation rise and unite
their many voices in singing, in some familiar tune, theDoxology.
The first was a musical performance, the last divine worship.
In the first the cultivated ear was regaled by the melody of
sweet sounds; in the last, when "that vast, concording unity
of the whole congregational chorus" came, the pious heart was
transported and wrapt up in high and heavenly contemplations.

There is, to us, hardly anything in the history of the Re-
formation more interesting than the influence which was then
exerted upon the world by the sacred songs of the Church.
When John Calvin, availing himself of a metrical version of a
few Psalms, made by Clement Marot, introduced them into his
church at Geneva, and, abandoning the antiphonal chanting,
in which the people took no part, invited them all to partici-
pate in the singing, the effect was electric. The new mode of
worship was welcomed with unbounded enthusiasm. Supplying
a real and felt want of the soul, the hearts of the people grate-
fully opened to receive it. And "from Geneva the golden
candlestick sent forth its rays far and wide. France and
Germany were instantly infatuated with a love of psalm-sing-
ing. The energetic hymns of Geneva exhilarated the convivial
assemblies of the Calvinists, were commonly heard in the
streets, and accompanied the labors of the artificer. They
found their way to the cities of the Low Countries, and under
their inspiration many of the weavers and woollen manufac-
turers of Flanders left their looms and entered the ministry of

the gospel Hymns in the vernacular dialects became

a power in the Reformation, co-ordinate with that of the pulpit.
Upon the masses of the people they were far more potent than
any other uninspired productions of the press. At i\.ugsburg,
in 1551, three or four thousand singing together at a time was
"but a trifle." The youth of the day sung them in place of
ribald songs; mothers sung them beside the cradle; journey-
men and servants sung them at their labor; market-men in the
streets and husbandmen in the fields.*"

Alas for the contrast between this picture of the power of
sacred song, in the days of the Reformation, and that which it

* Bibliotheca Sacra, vol. xvi., p. 192.

22

presents in our times ! And can any doubt the reason ? Though
we do not sing our songs of Zion, as the Romish Church did,
in a dead language and with alternate responses, do we not
almost equally with her take away from the people all partici-
pation in this part of the service? Indeed, how much church
singing is there in this day? What passes under this name, is
it not almost altogether choir-singing? How many of our
Christian congregations, in their acts of public praise, obey the
command,

" Both young men and maidens,
Old men and children,
Let them praise the name of the Lord ?"

Strongly opposed as we are to restraining, in any way, the
religious liberty of men, we, at times, almost desire that some
authoritative voice could go out over all our .churches, or some
ecumenical council would publish the decree,

"Let the people praise thee, 0 God!
Let all the peo2)le praise thee I"

The second point upon which, in this connection, we pro-
posed some remarks, was the prayers of the sanctuary.

We once heard a Christian minister, of large experience
and discriminating intellect, remark that, after listening to the
devotional exercises of a Presbyterian pastor for a few Sab-
baths, he could, with a good degree of certainty, decide to
which of the two great branches of that Church he belonged.
If his prayers abounded in adoration, the inference was that
he was a member of that division of our church which boasts
"the higher Calvinism" as its creed. If, on the other hand,
they were almost entirely made up of thanksgiving, confession
and supplication, he was assigned to our own branch of the
Church. And the philosophical explanation of this difference
was supposed to be found in the alleged fact, that while the
former make the sovereignty of God the stand-point of their
theology, we assign to man's free agency the same pre-emi-
nence. The distinction we do not believe is true, nor can we
admit the fact in which its explanation is supposed to be found.
The incident, however, is sufficient to suggest what we are in-
clined to regard as a very general defect in public prayer.

23

Should we make an exhaustive catalogue of all the examples
of this kind of devotion recorded in the Bible, and carefully exa-
mine the structure of each, we would discern that adoration
had in them all a large place. The old prophets, as they ap-
proached the throne of the Almighty, were abased by their
lofty conceptions of his greatness, and their first utterances
were always the expression of this feeling. They applied to
God so many different appellations that they seem to us almost
like vain repetitions, and in the unfolding of any of his perfec-
tions had a manifoldness of expression hardly suited to our
fastidious taste. Their language was, " The Lord is the true
God; he is the living God, and an everlasting king." (Jer. x.,
10.) ''Thou, even thou, art Lord alone; thou hast made
heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host; the earth,
and all things that are therein ; the seas, and all that is therein ;
and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worship-
peth thee." (Neh., ix., 6.) The learned Lightfoot, in speaking
of the prayers of the Jews, "both ordinary and occasional,"
says that " while it cannot be denied but that they had their
petitionary or supplicatory prayers, it must still be conceded
that the benedictory or doxological prayers were more in num-
ber, and more large and copious."* And this view of the im-
portance of adoration in prayer, how forcibly is it taught in
the standards of our Church! In the chapter of our Directory
for Worship (v.) entitled " Of Public Prayer," the following
are the opening sentences of a most admirable analysis of this
part of divine service. (Section ii.) * * * " It is proper
that, before sermon, there should be a full and comprehensive
prayer. First, adoring the glory and perfections of God, as
they are made known to us in the works of creation, in the
conduct of Providence, and in the clear and full revelation he
hath made of himself in his written word."

A more free use, in prayer, of Scriptural words and phrases
would also, we think, increase in our sanctuary service the ele-
ment of worship. The Bible, when pertinently quoted in prayer,
inspires reverence. It is God's word, and every man feels that
it is peculiarly appropriate, in addressing Jehovah, that he

* Lightfoot's Works, vol. xii., p. 106.

24

should employ His own language. Moreover, inspired words
never become trite or tedious. They will bear repetition, as
no human compositions will. And yet, again, the oriental cast
of the Eible, its fervor and unction of style, pre-eminently fit
it to be the great help of our devotion. Addison has beauti-
fully expressed this thought in an essay in the Spectator:
" There is a certain coldness in the phrases of European lan-
guages, compared with the oriental forms of speech. The Eng-
lish tongue has received innumerable improvements from an
infusion of Hebraisms, derived out of the practical passages in
holy writ. They warm and animate our language, give it force
and energy, and convey our thoughts in ardent and intense
phrases. There is something in this kind of diction that often
sets the mind in a flame, and makes our hearts burn within us.
How cold and dead is a prayer composed in the most elegant
forms of speech, when it is not heightened by that solemnity
of phrase which may be drawn from the sacred writings!"

A more serious defect, and one still more inimical to true
worship, is what has aptly been called "indolence in prayer."
Many seem to forget that prayer is a mental exercise. They
regard it as altogether an inspiration. Holding to the truth that
" the preparation of the heart in man, and the answer of the
tongue, is from the Lord," they make this indulgence of their
weakness an encouragement of their indolence. They forget
that the law of blessing, in this as in other things, allies it, in
some sort, with struggles of our own. Because a man may pray
with the intellect without praying with the heart, they infer
the converse that a man may pray with the heart without pray-
ing with the intellect. Not a few ministers of the gospel, who
would regard it as the highest presumption to appear before
their people and to attempt to preach without any previous pre-
paration, trusting that "the Spirit would help their infirmities,"
do still habitually attempt to lead the devotions of a whole con-
gregation, as they approach the throne of grace, with the un-
studied and spontaneous utterances of the moment. When a
minister or layman is peculiarly felicitous in leading the devo-
tions of a congregation, nothing is more common than to speak
of him as being specially gifted in prayer, just as if this capa-

25

city, like every other, was not the reward of practiced effort.
When Bishop Patrick was a young man, and the rector of a
rural parish, he was eminent for his fervor in prayer. After
wearing, however, for a few years, the lawn sleeves and mitre,
he was actually constrained to apologize to an old dissenting
friend, whose family devotions he one morning led, for his
hesitancy and embarrassment. Men cannot have profound
feeling on any subject without having previously had upon it
sound thought. Truth burns in the heart, after it has been
pondered by the intellect. "While I was musing," said David,
*'the fire burned; then spake I with my tongue." How a mi-
nister can have deep and genuine feeling in prayer, when the
themes upon which he dwells have not previously been made
the subjects of careful thought, we confess, seems to us a phy-
siological impossibility.

And this view of prayer is as biblical as it is philosophical.
The author of "The Still Hour," after alluding to the remark
of Coleridge, " that he thought the act of praying to be, in its
most perfect form, the very highest energy of which the human
heart was capable," adds: " Many Scriptural representations
of the idea of devotion come up fully to this mark. The
prayer of a righteous man, that availeth much, which our Eng-
lish Bible so infelicitously describes as * effectual, fervent,' is,

in the original, an energetic prayer, a working prayer

What else, also, is the force of the frequent conjunction of
* watching' and 'praying,' in the scriptural style of exhorta-
tion to the duties of the closet? Thus: 'Watch and pray;'
'watch unto prayer;' 'praying always and watching;' 'con-
tinue in prayer and watch.' There is no mental lassitude, no
self-indulgence, here. It was a lament of the prophet over the
degeneracy of God's people, 'None stirreth himself up to take
hold on thee.' Paul exhorts the Romans to 'strive toojether
with their prayers,' and commends an ancient preacher to
the confidence of the Colossians as one who labored fervently
in prayers. There is no droning or drawling effort here."*

But, with regard to public prayer, in its connection with
worship as an element of sanctuary service, we have one other

* The Still Hour, pp. 70 and 71. *

26

remark to make; and, though some of our readers may regard
it as unimportant, if not trivial, we cannot, ourselves, thus
esteem it. In entering upon this part of the service of God's
house there should be, with every worshipper, a change of phy-
sical position, and the assumption of a reverential posture. We
say, first, a change of position, to indicate, by some outward
act, the inward approach of the soul to God; and, secondly,
the assumption of a reverential posture; for such is certainly
His due, before whom even angels veil their faces. Much dis-
cussion has been had as to what is the precise posture that a
congregation should assume in prayer; but, supposing that
regard is had to both of the points just referred to — that the
posture is reverential, and is a change from that assumed by
the assembly in the other parts of service — we cannot regard
this discussion as important. Few things, however, are more
fatal to worship than that entire passivity which leads a con-
gregation never once to change its posture, from the invocation
to the benediction. This custom, now so prevalent in many of
our religious assemblies, is a twin error to choir-singing. They
generally go along hand in hand : they are seldom found alone.
But that will be a happy day to the Church when upon both
she will indignantly frown.

In closing this Article we cannot refrain from inviting the
special attention of our readers to a thought which, although it
has appeared all along the line of our argument, is still worthy
of a separate and distinct notice. The thought is this: All
that is necessary to give to worship, as an element of sanctuary
service, its true importance, is a full and faithful development
of that order which is embodied in our own Directory for Wor-
ship, We frankly confess our sympathy with those who, upon
retiring from some of our Presbyterian churches, after their
Sabbath services are over, feel a measure of dissatisfaction.
They have, indeed, been well instructed, but they have not
worshipped. They have been in a school, rather than in a
church. Their intellects have been fed, but their hearts have
not been touched. They have had nothing to do in the service.
But what, to meet this felt want, shall they do? Go elsewhere?
Unite themselves with some liturgical church, though her doc-

27

trines and ministerial orders are opposed to their belief? Or,
staying at home, shall they seek to graft upon the Presbyterian
Church what is unscriptural and opposed both to her spirit and
history? Whence this lack of true worship in her services?
What is the cause of this deficiency, of which some complain?
Is it inherent to her very structure? Is it of her essence, or
simply a defect in her administration? We are bold to pro-
claim the latter. Let every minister and layman carefully
study our Directory for Worship, and, in the services of God's
house, faithfully carry out all its provisions, and every just
ground for criticism in this particular will, we are sure, be re-
moved. W^orship and instruction, the two great elements of
sanctuary service, will then have to each other their just rela-
tions. Neither will be unduly or disproportionably developed,
but both in such beautiful symmetry as to make the whole ap-
pear but one act of grateful homage to Jehovah, just as a star,
really binary, looks out upon us from the skies — one world.

I

11

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